Tarento
From Open Encyclopedia
Tarento (タレント) is a Japanese rendering of the English word "talent" and is used as a catch-all term for major media personalities who regularly appear on television, radio and other forms of entertainment. Successful tarento craft unique public personas in order to cater to certain Japanese demographics, just as in every other entertainment culture. However, insofar as Japanese culture demonstrates certain extremes, so, too, tarento reflect these cultural fixations. For example, Morning Musume is the rough equivalent of America's Britney Spears, but because Japanese culture is biased towards adolescent girls and not-yet-mature women, Morning Musume's stars are constantly "retired" as they approach adulthood and replaced by new girls, some as young as twelve (much like Menudo}. In Japan, the majority of a concert audience may consist of middle-aged men.
Tarento, whether men or women, have notoriously short career spans, and their earning capabilities are not as highly as popularly imagined. The vast majority make just enough to maintain a middle-class lifestyle in Tokyo, Japan's media capital. That said, their work is generally considered interesting, one achieves social prominence (and all the associated benefits), and a successful tarento career can be the launching point for a career as movie actor or even political figure. Female tarento who are unable to leverage their career into something larger sometimes slowly "decline" into AV work and eventual obscurity.
As of late 2005, Masaki Sumitani (a caricature of a BDSM gay man) and Bobby Ologun (a caricature of an African) are both considered at the apex of the tarento industry.
See also
- Gaijin tarento -- Foreign personality
- List of Japanese celebrities
